Digital Lead Generation: Don’t Ignore Non-Lead Actions

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Commitment is hard. Despite your best lead generation efforts, some customers are not ready to submit their information right away. But from a paid advertising point of view, why not add them to the conversion funnel? While a lead may be the eventual goal, there are plenty of other valuable actions—besides a standard lead form submission—that you should be tracking.

Lead generation, from an insider’s perspective, seems simple enough, but for the user it’s not something that is done casually. Before hitting the submit button on a lead form, the user has likely researched competitors, looked at pages of reviews, checked social media, and ran it by their local bartender. The user knows that from there, they will likely be following up with emails, phone calls, and additional meetings.

The user may not be ready to commit initially, but that doesn’t mean other conversion types shouldn’t be tracked and attributed to your paid advertising efforts.

By creating additional goals or conversion types and restructuring your campaigns, you can help direct users to the eventual lead. Reviewing search term reports can be tedious, but they can provide invaluable insights into qualifying terms that users include in their searches. Using the knowledge you gain from search terms, you can begin aligning your campaigns based on where users are in the conversion path.

Separating campaigns into distinct initiatives (research, awareness, activation, etc.) allows you to create tailored ads, ad extensions, and remarketing campaigns, driving users to unique landing pages. A user may provide their email for a newsletter subscription, call you directly, or download a white paper. While they’re not technically considered leads, these additional actions can be used to nurture a relationship which eventually turns into a lead. These conversion types also provide another level of detail into your campaigns to help evaluate success in a broader scope.